the sinking island cyprus struggles to meet the e.u. used to mons vital for a bailout ahead of monday's deadline with schools of savers facing the prospect of losing chunks of their money for the sake of rescuing the country's a. u.k. police dig into the death of the russian tycoon boris berezovsky in london who said to have repented his possed for a return to his homeland in just the last few days. starving to death in protest at indefinite detention as lawyers for hunger striking guantanamo bay detainees claim their clients lives are on the line the u.s. military denies any crisis and even wants to expand the facility. from china with the president paying uses his first trip abroad to seal massive energy

deals with russia and to both of the financial and geo political counterweight to washington. some. of the top stories of the week and today this is the weekly with me rule research. cyprus is stuck between a rock and a hard place just ahead of monday's deadline to raise five point eight billion euros needed to secure an e.u. bailout and ultimately avoid a banking collapse and the government has produced a plan that could potentially see schools of people lose up to a fifth of their life savings simply for the sake of rescuing the banks and the prospect cause panic and discontent across cyprus this week and with crowds venting

their anger on the streets of this report now two odysseys attacks are awesome. in a dramatic week of unfolding events cyprus has moved from rejected europe with a resounding no vote on what it saw as an unfair demand for getting a ten billion euro bailout did now bed to go over backwards trying to clinch that money scrambling to put together a package pleasing enough to its creditors the so-called troika now saying yes to imposing a twenty percent levy on deposits above one hundred thousand euros in the bank of cyprus and four percent for big deposits in other backs imposing capital controls creating a so we did a fund and a restructuring it's a given banks and then that week of dramatic political and economic will hoovering citizens were on an emotional roller coaster panicked cypriots rushed to a.t.m. to try to get their money out of the bank at gas stations in rio cash meant no gas agri people took to the streets shocked at what they largely felt was europe

particularly germany trying to bring them to their needs but it will stay home how they would pay us and our kids. we don't accept it's a sight all too familiar in next door greece for the first time in the euro zone string of being allowed to verify a red line had been crossed would you stop all going about this particular instance is that the european union the euro zone have taken a step forward beyond their previous policy where they always said individuals will not be harmed we will not take money out of the minds of engineers and actually they've done that what we see is that if you are a big member then you will be left alone and you will be bailouts and you if you are small member you will be beleaguered iris to further complicate matters banks in the country will remain closed until next week the european central bank had given an ultimatum if there's no deal with the troika by monday the twenty fifth

merges in the could have the funding will be cut off causing another round of panic as citizens feared the. worst holding on to as much cash as they could most conversations now are about nothing else but the predicament their country's it and of course the time you're getting more. and more. support from you but there are reasons to be able to. say you didn't believe it would you know what everybody else or company next or company then you go before people see your club. and whenever they could they don't think twice about joining the crowd over time it's pretty clear cut those. people's unification into one season i think those are. well over the past few days maybe cypriots have been telling me that they've seen or read about the impacts of the economic crisis on the people of neighboring countries but it's not

a really felt feel to them a lot until the past week or so they share similar language or similar culture and other wondering are they going to have to share a similar social tragedy as well. tests or cilia r t nicosia cyprus. and in the meantime i mean nigel for raj says that even you leaders pushing to raid people's bank deposits is an unprecedented theft by those desperate to keep the year off. cyprus is now the fifth country out of the seventeen that's needed to be bailed out and that is why the germans extracted the terms that they did but i must say even in my diaries predictions in this parliament over the years about the way the e.u. bosses were behaving never did i think that they would in a completely unprecedented manner resort to stealing money from people's bank account and they know that once one country goes the whole deck of cards will come

tumbling down and countries like germany will realize absolutely vast losses possibly as much as one trillion euros so they are prepared now to do anything literally anything to try to keep the euro afloat and that is why they've now resorted as i say to what can only be described as theft and now they've done it in one country they're quite capable of doing it in italy spain portugal or anywhere else but the message that sends to people who've got savings in banks in those countries certainly if i was there is get your money out don't invest in the euro zone do not invest anywhere in the euro zone you've got to be mad to do so because it's now run by people who don't respect democracy they are propping up a euro zone which in the end is going to collapse in disastrous failure or they are prepared to do anything to do so i think that this decision this german dominated and led decision is the worst decision we've seen so far in this whole eurozone

crisis. live from moscow this is r.t. thank you for joining us today british police are currently looking into the death of the self exiled russian tycoon and vocal kremlin critic that of boris berezovsky now biohazard experts went to his home near london where he was found dead but have now given it the all clear sign across want to sara first has the latest from the scene. the thames valley police continuing the investigation into the cause of death of course burzynski which still remains unexplained of the latest update to that investigation is that the c.b.r. and the team of officers trained in handling radioactive material he had been at the scene joining the investigation they've now given the all clear say they've left the investigation and the cordon the can see behind me here that had span two miles around. just to the lane where his fame is as if he amounts to

speculation surrounding the death first berzinski was a larger than life character of the russian psyche and had made his fourteen after the break up of the save the union we know that in recent years he had been struggling psychologically and financially he had a number of high profile cases. the most recent of which he lost against fellow you've got abramovich and when you listen to people here in the courthouse at the time of that it certainly seems that that had a very significant impact on him indeed as he said not just psychologically but financially as well and it does look like he was struggling with that and a lot of relatives a lot of friends of boris berezovsky have come out and speculated about his mental state at the time of his death and we've also heard from the russian president's press attach a he said that he months ago the president received a letter from we can take

a listen now to what. some time ago maybe some two months ago but it's sent a letter to putin himself saying that he admits that he made a lot of mistakes. to forgive him fleece mistakes and also asked putin for a transfer. this letter did exist pretty dismal the man he's wanted by british police. on suspicion of the murder of alexander litvinenko the very high profile case that continues to stay you can about there is a ski describing the sea as this arrivals saying he was in constant contact through mutual friends and also giving further insight into his mental state at the time. of it in which he was completely alone in the last six months unfortunately he was not thinking much of friendship himself he was keeping ties only with the men he needed and when he took everything he could from those men and he parted with them that is why his friends have done the same thing to him we were bitter rivals but

we were constantly in dialogue through our movie true friends i know for sure that he was in a deep depression and he started to revaluate many things he was missing russia living in london and he always after people coming to visit him from moscow to bring him local food whiteboard inskeep read the meeting with a journalist as late as friday boris berezovsky has spoken about his longing to return home to russia and talks about losing meaning to his life perhaps like further insights into the russian tycoon state of mind at the time that he died of course that police investigation to establish the cause of his death right now. sarah further poking right there wolf more and what mama we left in history by boris berezovsky and i joined here in the studio by our people develop a cross of the often volatile program cross thanks very much for coming in a pleasure to discuss the issue about boris berezovsky he was estimated by some to

be a multi-billionaire. estimate estimated is an opaque man we don't know much there's a lot we don't know about the man but certainly some saying that perhaps he made a lot of his money from shady deals in the one nine hundred ninety s. with some also saying though he was less of a businessman but more of a manipulate it was a minute later more than anything else he stole assets he didn't buy them rigged the system used politicians c.u.z. so he wasn't a legitimate businessman that we would think of but talk to us about the whole issue of the rule of seven because what is that all of those shares for loans program to get reelected he gave up the crown jewels of the country and so when the election was over yeltsin was back with the seven people owned half the economy so what kind of country can you rule over when seven people own it when what about so you actually met or is very close i met him in a in a private function once and i was with a young lady and she said my goodness peter this must be the safest place on earth and i said to you this is probably the least safe place on earth because it had so

much security there i mean he was paranoid about security with good reason when he lived in russia talk about talk to us about. self exile. scaped it was a matter of escape escaped and what about the as he is there in absentia ultimately from moscow living in exile in london getting basically some form of refugee status was he still trying to get involved with russian politics he was he even said he wanted to overthrow the legitimate order of russia in two thousand and six he got slapped down for that by the home office ok the orange revolution everything you can imagine he probably had his fingers in so yes he definitely had an interest in russian politics but from afar what about the successor to yeltsin we are standing by the way everybody has to meet putin president. no no no you might have suggested something but you also made the decision ultimately ok and it's an exaggeration one of the cases we've had now for the past couple of years the whole issue of litvinenko the radiation poisoning the death can you can you draw any ties will be

given to work for better he works for you wanted dirt on politicians particularly putin he was the man knew too little not too much he was a bodyguard for goodness sake ok and so i tend to think when finney and co accidentally killed himself or committed suicide one of the other in the face of massive conspiracy theorists worldwide you think listening to believe the simplest answer is the obvious one ok not a conspiracy. but about of the final final years of sort of the past couple of years with better off ski it would seem many are saying he had a bit of a knockout punch when he had to go to court with it but imo which both you know two guys with alleged to have multi-million who are with now one scrap of paper will hold on a second one sort of goes to court to face a bit of overage and has no pay for it through the dice he knew the end was coming he was running out of money so why even a court for one final gamble at a time when his wife had left him she left right after she left right after but did he know that his time was up do you think i think so i think you know he lost or he

died alone i think that says a lot he died all by himself but what people what he already paying money to a bit of a bitch that i i can't speak to details on that but i know he was paying out a lot of money for legal advice what about you know boredom and grievance of failure to acknowledge his time of influence money a good understanding and giving up illusions this guy was a grandstander and it seems to some that it isn't thank you said it all right there just just disappeared as a quiet man in the back alley or moe knows me will find out more things in his death in the wake of his what about me deteriorating health depression or some some people are saying it's possible that he committed suicide i think he did i mean it points in that direction it's pretty obvious he had nothing much to live for and he couldn't come back to russia. why do you think he couldn't come back to russia to be prosecuted prosecuted for war crimes during the one nine hundred ninety s. for theft you stink because you still think he could be held up for that absolutely absolutely absolutely has there been a crackdown on people of that of that we don't have we don't have all of arks

anymore we have business people we have rich business people that's the biggest difference between the one thousand nine hundred and today but boris baron soft skin what what what what kind of mob do you think he's leaving behind really because you know he was a criminal in my opinion in the east he represents an epoch in russian history probably the worst chapter in russian history recent history because what there was in there some call it recently from cut off ski who is some point what was considering throwing his hat in the presidential ring and all this kind of stuff and and somebody said it was it was also you the said of the cross he was in a better position because he was incarcerated in russia or he was under some sort of i mean that's to lucian or don't think anybody want to spend time in a russian prison but how does how does a russian alleged billionaire live in london under a status of refugee living in the air as an exile how does that happen because frankly i've heard some people say well everybody's got a price how do you think it is off he got himself such a cushy set up he escaped and he was giving information out to be selling information he knew had the information he had people the new information as well

so he was a manipulator to the very very end he just played all of his cards and he any final words to think about is also good today any final words from you regarding his reasons ari but good riddance good bye for good people develop a host of crosstalk a great pleasure to have you and thanks so much pleasure. well all the way here on the issue of blackout behind bars u.s. officials to new to downplay the scale of a mass hunger strike at one ton of my bay while the pentagon now wants to expand the notorious facility the details i'm more interested in. a clear image of iraq after inflation. twenty day taxi trip through the country. the roads full of dangerous. clear evidence

from north to south. the root of iraqi tragedy. after the war waiting for peace. like the taxi on our t.v. . sigrid laboratory to mccurry was able to build a most sophisticated robot which fortunately doesn't give a darn about anything mission to teach creation why it should care about humans in the world this is why you should care only.

alright it's getting to be laid off to noon on sunday here in moscow this is arts he skin and bones fainting and even coughing up blood that's how lawyers for the hunger striking guantanamo bay detainees describe some of their clients who have not been starving themselves since early february and some attorneys claim they are no longer given access to the captives while the u.s. military continues to downplay the scale of the hunger strike and despite this ongoing crisis the pentagon now wants to expand the facility saying it will be open indefinitely on. points. despair among guantanamo detainees is growing as now even their lawyers are being denied direct access to them attorneys say they had a visit scheduled for early next week with one of the prisoners who's been on strike since the beginning of february lawyers have been informed by saudis that the only flights to the prison the u.s. military flight was cancelled. there are no other

options there are no good on it. and this is why it's. not only are the attorney struggling to find out the true extent of what's happening in guantanamo now but we journalists or as well this friday captain robinson who ran the spokesman for guantanamo responded to our inquiry he wrote us quote we have twenty six hunger strikers with eight receiving and turning feeds meaning they get nutrition through a feeding tube last friday robert to rand wrote us there were fourteen people refusing all food while the defense attorney said been saying there were many more we cannot independently verify any of this at this point we're just relying on what the officials and detainees lawyers tell us we're certainly in touch with their attorneys and will continue to press the officials for answers in addition to the inquiries that we made with the defense department we also asked the department of justice for their perspective on what's happening and they basically told us that it's none of their business that the military oversees the facility and referred

this back to the department of defense defense attorneys are telling us that these sorties have created conditions which make it nearly impossible for them to do their job and defend their clients so frustrating there is nothing that we can do we have sent e-mails to the department to do the commander. asking them. to talk to us about. her response we have been told by the department of justice that they will not talk to us they refers back to the part of the. norma's talk to us in the meantime in washington the officials tried to downplay the hunger strike but they seem to have a good idea of why these men resorted to such a desperate move and yet they have no solution to offer they had great optimism that guantanamo would be closed they were devastated when the president did you know backed off at least their perception of closing the facility that has caused

them to become frustrated and they want to get this i think turn the heat up get it back in the media but it was not on the status of the detainees that general john kelly whose command oversees guantanamo came to discuss in congress he was there asking for money to renovate the prison the upgrade of the camp is estimated to cost taxpayers almost two hundred million dollars as washington schedules renovations at guantanamo the international community continues to call on president obama to comply with his own promises and to shut down the infamous prison we have no right to hold people indefinitely without charges without a trial and without people having access to a justice system that's against every principle of law which exists in the world the un commissioner for human rights responded to our request for comment and said they have quote repeatedly regretted that the u.s. government has not closed guantanamo bay four years ago president obama ordered to stop tortured guantanamo but the u.s. says indefinite detention itself is a form of torture british resident shakur aamer was cleared for release six years

ago yet he's still being held captive here's what he writes please talk to me in the old way here they destroy people mentally and physically without leaving marks half of the men now in guantanamo have been cleared for release many others never formally accused of a crime three months ago the state department closed the office in charge of closing the prison there's a growing sense among the detainees there that the only way out of guantanamo for them is in a coffin in washington i'm going to check them. now from energy deals to g.o.p. . politics this friday china's new leader ping made moscow his first official stop abroad in a multi-billion dollar deal struck beijing will now have more russian oil being pumped into its pipes but apart from economic interdependence the china russia ties are seen as an attempt to counter the u.s. dominance in global affairs and my colleague mattress to discuss this a bit earlier with r.t.

shown to us. this is. first trip as president. away from china and where does he choose he chooses to come to russia and this is considered an important strategic move a symbolic move showing how insync these two countries really are and they used to be not so instinct not so lockstep but politically if you look at them form a very powerful bloc on the u.n. security council there have the same ideas about syria libya iran even north korea and then in terms of trade it china is now russia's number one trading partner that used to be germany but just to give you an idea how much that is in two thousand and twelve eighty eight billion dollars of trade between these two countries alone so it's very important for russia and china to be working together and in this trip they decided to promote cross border infrastructure and many significant deals were made and moving away from politics towards economics energy was a big focus of the trip right certainly in fact ross nafta is set to triple their

exports to china over a certain amount of time now that time hasn't been determined yet but they want to start exporting forty five to fifty million tons of oil per year to china and russia has a huge energy giants china as a huge energy consumer not just oil but gas as well a memorandum went out about a gas deal that doesn't have any real specifics but just creates a partnership between russia and china when it turns to gas exportation as well you know both russia and china are members of the so-called brics group of countries including also brazil india and south africa. is this this new partnership going to be significant you have this mano polar leadership right now in the world that everyone looks for united states as like the default go to country the most powerful country supposedly the brics basically was created as a an economic or a trade relationship between these developing economies but now it's become an actual

a political. forum as well in these countries standing up and providing their voices to other countries around the world to help be problem solvers if you will so that there is this. less of a focus on the singular pole leadership and more multiple poles developing around the world as well so china and russia working together in fact she jinping said that closer ties with russia will make a safer world and that's what something that he said in his trip it's turning our attention not out of syria but the head of the national coalition for opposition fighters that's just resigned months after being elected in a statement. said that he's stepping down because some matters within the institution have now reached red lines and the surprise resignation follows the controversial election of an interim prime minister on tuesday in istanbul we saw twelve opposition members step down immediately after the vote by the american educated id manager turned islamist politician son hito had lived in america for

decades before moving to turkey a couple who took part in the anti assad movement says the opposition government is ultimately run by radicals. then the coalition went to a far off forming and monochrome government which we can't characterize this extremist and the reason behind this is the mechanisms that we used in the selection of the head of government were undemocratic this coalition wasn't elected it was the point and radicals make up the majority does not match the reality of syrian society if this coalition was the result of free and fair elections then we would have accepted the results of the vote should not deprive syrian minorities of the right to participate in political life as one should not be bribed syrian liberal political groups of their rights at this stage of rebuilding our own with the coalition should not be about revolutionary power it should be about legitimate government and the german government should represent the opinions and interests of

the whole syrian nation our position is balanced and we say that what we are seeing now is wrong. and just after a short break here in r.t. we continue our special journey from the north of iraq all the way to the far south alternately following a filmmaker's dangerous trip through the war torn country this is a. jorge rios an argentinian student at seventeen other similar students from foreign countries all paid a private company between three thousand and four thousand dollars so that they get to take part in a u.s. state department work study program he was promised forty hours of work per week at

a common fast food restaurant with a decent salary but the reality he claims was quite different he was actually only given around four hours of work per week but was expected to be on call twenty. seven like a surgeon i guess in case of some burger emergency he says he was forced to live in accommodations that were provided by the restaurant real six plane that he had to sleep in a child sized bunk bed in a basement with seven other people in filthy conditions and for this service he had to pay the restaurant three hundred dollars a month overall real swallowed up paying the burger joint to work for them what a way to not make a living though this story sounds funny on the surface many foreigners in work and study and work in travel programs do experience exploitation upon arrival in the usa i've even personally met some of them so i know but more than that in a time when millions of americans are struggling to put food on the kitchen table why are companies searching for thousands of exploitable foreigners to work for two

dollars an hour cheaper it is corporate greed and their absolute disrespect for americans that allows this to happen just pay the extra two dollars and have americans work for you to cheap corporate pigs but that's just my opinion. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems. you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you. are is a big picture.